Private planes crowd skies for Modi swearing-in

Ahmedabad, Dec 25 (UNI) Around 50 VVIPs of the BJP and religious leaders flew in here by private aircraft and helicopters to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Narendra Modi as the 14th Chief Minister of Gujarat today.

The VVIPs included Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha and senior BJP leader Lal Krishna Advani, party president Rajnath Singh, party general secretary Arun Jaitley, Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Major Gen (Retd) Bhuvan Chandra Khanduri, besides prominent religious leaders Swami Satyamitranandgiri of Bharat Maata Mandir of Haridwar, Sadhu Avichaldas and others.

The VVIPs had flown in through private planes and choppers here late last night or early today.

A PRO of a private company, on condition of anonymity, said these private flying machines were probably from all big companies of Gujarat and Delhi such as Reliance, Essar, Tata and Birla.

However, the corporate flying machines might have been taken on rent or borrowed by the VVIPs, he added.

According to aviation sources, it was probably the busiest air traffic day in the history of the state as never before so many private flying machines were attended by Traffic Control Tower of Sardar Patel International Airport of the city.

Some of the aircraft will be flown back to their original destination either this evening or tomorrow morning.

Due to the heavy air traffic of the private flyers, some of the regular domestic flights were delayed.

UNI